| The Upper East Cider™ | ||
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| Ezine | August 11, 2001 | Manhattan |
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| This Edition: Travel Diary Day Four: Unconventional Folks and Food Two Regular Features:
We are the beasts and these are truly God's children.
Fine art gallery showing samples of the painter's work. Click Me This page is best viewed with IE. If you are using Netscape, it may be necessary to widen this window to prevent words from flowing behind pictures. Also, Netscape does not work with internal jump links, so you may have to scroll up or down to see everything on this page.
This is the airline that we flew on our Magical Mystery Tour. We saw Heartbreakers on the cross-country flight West and Spy Kids on the flight East.
This is the Japanese Garden, right behind the International Rose Test Garden. It was a very relaxing place to sit. So we did.
Many of the denizens of Portland worked as extras in this movie--no costume changes necessary.
Hostelling International - Portland, Northwest Pics of Dave and Mike around Portland . . .
Public showers in Portland. click to enlarge Trains, cable cars, tandem buses, horse-n-buggies, clock tower, stone arches, water fountain sculptures, market square vendors all in 100 feet. How quaint is this place?!
Outdoor sunken garden cafe in the middle of city with stone walls and meandering staircase to street.
Cool hole in tree at Multnomah Falls outside Portland.
Japanese garden in the City of Portland. | MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR This is the diary I kept of a week long vacation, including travel to Phoenix (AZ), Portland (OR), Las Vegas (NV), and New York (NY). Don't Feed the Animals Me. (New York City to Newark to Las Vegas to Phoenix) I am a lawyer, a professor, and a judge. I have 22 suits in my closet. I own only one pair of jeans. All my shirts have collars and buttons. In high school I wore a tie (except for in my yearbook picture--a mistake I am about to repeat). My brother wears sandals, shorts and a T-shirt to work. When I visit him in Florida to go to Disney I bring a sports jacket just in case. So my family always gives me a hard time about my over-dressing. So I took a good look at myself, turned over a new leaf, packed my one pair of jeans, and met my best friend at the airport. And I wore my shorts. I packed light: no "just in case" jacket. I am going to "just have fun". (Phoenix to Portland) The temperature in Phoenix is 99º. It is monsoon season. That means after you shower you don't dry off. You can try, but it won't matter. In fact, if you lack a shower, sink, or garden hose, you can just exert yourself outside--breathing is one example, then lather up and wait a few minutes for a slow slipping-suds rinse or use a windshield wiper to squeegee from wet to streaked. (Portland) Of course, if you make a declaratory statement, then Murphy's Law will promptly take exception. No sooner than we noted the morose dreary dank but then the sun broke out. Not that we're complaining, but we tried this with other things to work the Law to our advantage to no avail. For instance, I said, "Who needs money?" and Dave said, "There aren't many pretty woman that I can see." We didn't get either. DAY FOUR: UNCONVENTIONAL FOLKS AND FOOD. (Portland to Las Vegas) This morning I bid farewell to my first hostel experience. I have known violence before, but I'm not talking about naked aggression I'm talking about hotels for the dyslexic, and disturbed. Some of these people come off the street laden like Mad Max to sleep above or below you in a bunk bed in a room full of bunk beds. Some carried a walking stick to scratch, brush and I suppose beat off all the women. I am washed, lack matted hair, and don't walk bare foot into the communal bathroom; so Nova would have nothing to do with me.
Disembarking, I learned my gut and my guilt plotted against me. (Las Vegas) I met a girl. (Las Vegas to Phoenix to Newark to New York City) After Vegas, we had to make it back to NYC with several more bodies than we had left with. Some friends would come along to continue onto Boston (MA) for roller blading fun. So, we hopped to Phoenix, collected the roller bladers and went the rest of the way to NYC via Newark. We all crashed into my small box stacked 21 boxes high for a few hours of sleep. We had bagels on the rocky shores of Turtle Pond in Central Park below Belvedere's Castle, meandered through the Bramble to the Boathouse, and emerged at The Plaza to cross Fifth Avenue to FAO Schwartz. We marched down Fifth, climbed the Empire State Building, surveyed the known Universe from its Center, then headed back to the largest living museum in the world--the MET--for drinks accompanied by live classical music. After a wash-up, we went west to Lincoln Center for dinner on Broadway, then downtown to Little Italy for dessert. The train to Boston left without our unconscious travelers, so a second day was spent in Manhattan. This time we roller-bladed through Central Park (twice around, 13 miles), then we had pizza and played billiards. Throughout it all, some charming ladies tried to convince me of something, but I only took Spanish, Latin and Greek in school in addition to my native tongue, English. Being these women claimed to be from another planet, I'm still not sure what they were trying to say. It might've been "like the meaning of life or what's at the center of a Tootsie Pop, you'll never guess 'what's wrong.'" [I think the correct answers are a box of chocolates, a Tootsie roll, and nothing, in that order. But my friend Dave tells me I'm not actually suppose to solve the last one--I'm just suppose to keep guessing--because solving it blows their whole self-image of being a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Guessing right only makes them furious because they'll have to come up with another set of improbable complaints to stew about. Besides, they'll seem to nag less if you just ignore them. Thanks for that beauty, Meyer.] In the final analysis, Dave and I had barely four hours of sleep each night from the beginning of the trip. We passed through five cities, hung out with Dave's really cool Arizona friends and had a great time. That was a week ago. I'm still tired. | Past Editions: December 5, 2000: Art Exhibit November 12, 2000: Abortion Debate October 31, 2000: Political Cartoon September 2, 2000: Movie Review August 8, 2000: Cruelty Expose` July 4, 2000: Animals Are Just Another Bag, Again Legislation Alert June 24, 2000:
Two views of Portland from the International Rose Test Garden. This is Portland's version of Inspiration Point. If you look carefully, you can see Mt. Hood in the distance. Mt. Hood is due to erupt like Mt. St. Helena.
We showed up here at Multnomah Falls for a breakfast of salmon and eggs in a stone and log cottage at the base of the falls. We ate while classical music played and a fireplace crackled. Outside there was a view of a railroad track, passing trains, and the Columbia Gorge River, which divides Oregon and Washington. After breakfast we hiked to the top of the falls.
Aladdin Hotel and Casino Pics of Dave and Mike around Portland . . .
Public showers in Portland. click to enlarge Japanese garden in the City of Portland. The score is 5 to 2. Hold your breath for more pics to come. |
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| © 2000, 2001 Michael J. Gregorek, Esq. | ||